1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic devices for inserting images into live video signals, particularly to such systems adapted to be capable of rapidly inserting different indicia into video dependent on some event which may or may not be related to the video content, such as, but not limited to, the speed of the pitch in a baseball match, or the current value of a stock market index.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices for inserting images into live video signals, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,264,933 by Rosser, et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,675 by Hanna and U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,517 by Kreitman et. al., have been developed and used for the purpose of inserting advertising and other indicia into broadcast events, primarily sports events. These devices are capable of seamlessly and realistically incorporating logos or other indicia into the original video in real time, even as the original scene is zoomed, panned or otherwise altered in size and perspective.
Sports broadcasters are constantly looking for ways to make television sports viewing more compelling to viewers. One way to enhance a viewer""s enjoyment of a game or contest is to provide statistics about the game such as, but not limited to, the current score; the time elapsed, the time of the game remaining; the speed an object is thrown, hit or served; the distance a ball or object is thrown, hit or served; the time taken for an object or player to move from one point to the next; the distance a football team has to go to achieve a First Down; the current position of an Offside Line in soccer; and so on. As long as there is a means to measure a statistic in a reasonable time (e.g., clock, stop watch, radar or JUGGS gun, a GPS position measurement, a marker that can be observed automatically or by a person, etc.), that statistic can be used by the broadcaster to enhance the game. Such information is routinely displayed in television broadcasts as a static or animated overlay by means of such well-known keying devices as the Chyron Corporation""s INFINIT(copyright) family of character generators. The problem with adding in an overlay is that the video image becomes clutteredxe2x80x94and rather than enhancing a viewer""s enjoyment of a game, too much information presented overlaid over the video of the game begins to diminish the viewing experience. In particular, such overlays can obscure some of the action of the game.
This current invention solves the problem of how to add information to a sports broadcast without introducing undesirable image clutter. Briefly described, the preferred embodiment of the invention uses a modified live video insertion system to display the information not as an overlay but in a way that the inserted information indicia looks as if it is actually part of the original scene being televised. In this way the sports fan sees the game action with the added statistical information looking like a scoreboard or sign in the stadium itself. Most importantly, by displaying the additional information in the background, if the action of the game moves into that region of the image, the viewer sees the players and the action moving in front of the inserted information.
Alternative embodiments of the present invention permit displaying the information indicia in a manner in which it is obviously not part of the original scene being televised, similarly to the conventional manner depicted in FIG. 2. However, an important distinction over this prior art is that this alternative embodiment displays the information indicia in the background so that action occurring in the game occludes it. Further alternative embodiments, rather than performing occlusion of the information indicia, resize or reposition the insert so as to avoid the game image from being obscured. A still further alternative embodiment would simply disable the event information display when it would otherwise obstruct the TV audience""s view of the event action.
In the live video insertion systems referenced above in the Background of the Invention, the inserted indicia were static images, pre-prepared animation sequences or live video from another video source. Modifications to such systems are necessary to display information that only becomes available while the insertion is already in view, such as the outcome of a play being shown. The technical problem that is solved by this invention is to transition from an insert that is of a scoreboard or sign to a display of that scoreboard or sign with one of a number of possible outcomes of a play or action, while showing the play or action.
To modify the live video insertion systems as described in, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,264,933 by Rosser, et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,856 by Rosser et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,915 by Rosser et. al., all of which are hereby incorporated in this application by reference, in order to display information that is rapidly changing or dependent on the outcome of a real-time event in the stadium, there needs to be a pre-prepared animated sequence for each possible outcome or another video source trained on a scoreboard device which will show the required statistic. For instance, to be able to display the speed of the pitch in a baseball game as a background graphic, there first needs to be an inserted indicia in the field of view, which is the scoreboard or sign where the speed of the pitch will be displayed. After the pitch is thrown and the speed measured by a radar gun, such as the well known JUGGS gun, the live video insertion system either inserts a live shot of a camera trained on a scoreboard displaying the pitch speed or runs a short animation, changing or morphing from the scoreboard or sign to a rendering of the scoreboard or sign displaying the measured speed of the pitch and then morphing or changing back to a rendering of the original scoreboard or sign. Since a reasonable baseball pitch in a major league game can be anywhere from 70 to 99 miles per hour, there are 30 possible outcomes, one of which has to be selected within a fraction of a second by an operator.
The most obvious way to implement the invention would be to have a camera trained on a display that shows the required result or statistic, and insert this live video as the logo or indicia of the live video insertion system. Apart from the extra expense of another camera, and the need for a properly constructed model scoreboard or sign, such an obvious implementation introduces difficulties of synching the video and of framing the edge of the shot so as to make the total insert look as if it really is part of the scene being viewed.
Another, slightly more manageable way to implement this invention is to modify live video insertion systems by adding on a random access video storage unit, such as the well-known line of AVID Inc.""s video storage devices. If this random access video storage device is supplying video to be inserted, and the random access device has a multitude of different versions of an animation of the scoreboard or sign, one of which shows one of the possible outcomes to be shown, then all the operator has to do is to select and activate the correct animation sequence into the live video insertion system unit on cue. In the baseball speed of the pitch example, the random access video storage unit would need to have thirty different animations stored, one showing each of the possible speeds from 70 to 99 mph as the mid point of the animation. This way, the television viewer will initially see a scoreboard or background in the field of view. As soon as the pitch speed is known, and the appropriate animation is activated by the operator or automatically by the live video insertion system reading the output from the radar gun, the viewer will see the scoreboard or sign animate to display the speed of the pitch and then animate back to being a scoreboard or sign in the background. There are technical difficulties and costs associated with this simple implementation of the invention. In particular, having a large number of complete animations on such an external storage device is expensive in memory, and introduces timing and synchronization difficulties.
A more elegant way to implement the invention is to use simpler, multi threaded animations, in which there is a core sequence with a number of optional mid sequence variations, each of which may be a short animation or may be as simple as a single animation frame. For instance one implementation of the baseball speed of the or current score of another game or other information that the viewer would like to see without being distracted from the flow of the game they are currently watching.